Eddie Murphy says Robin Williams tried to talk him out of racist Oscar speech

Eddie Murphy said Robin Williams questioned his speech about the Oscars’ history of disparaging black actors during the 1988 Academy Awards ceremony.

Murphy was presenting the Best Picture award and had written a piece pointing out the rarity of black performers winning in the acting categories, noting that only three had won up to that point. (The number is now in the 20s).

“I remember being with Robin Williams backstage,” Murphy told Entertainment Weekly in a story published Tuesday. “I thought, ‘I’m going to say this.’ And he says, ‘But why go there?’”

Murphy was already a star of “Saturday Night Live” and “Beverly Hills Cop,” so his words could carry weight. Apparently, it wasn’t the intention that bothered Williams; was that the protest didn’t generate enough laughter, according to the “Coming to America” star.

“I was like, ‘Oh, don’t you think it’s funny?’ It was more, is this funny? More than controversial,” Murphy explained. “I was trying to be funny and say something, but be funny too. Have a little bit of an edge to what I said.”

Despite the advice of Williams, who died in 2014, Murphy continued his speech that night anyway, drawing laughter as he drove home his point.

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